Pete's First Ultimate Iditarod Update
October 15, 2002

Note:  Ultimate Iditarod will be following Pete Ripmaster as he learns and trains over the next two years.  This is the first of many articles that Pete will be contributing.  More about Pete can be found in our 2003 Mushers page. 

Howdy-

Well what a great adventure this is going to be!!  I am so excited about being a part of the Seavey Iditarod racing team and Ultimate Iditarod.  I’m looking at this winter season as a learning year.  Things happen fast up here in good ol’ Sterling Alaska.  I’m surrounded by a great, hard working family in the Seavey’s and a fast friend in Jim Gallea. 

The reasons for me being up here are many, but the main ones are working hard towards a serious goal of finishing the Iditarod and living the great Alaskan lifestyle.  I have lived in Telluride, Colorado, the past few years but have made it a point to make it up to Alaska as much as possible.  Then I realized that Alaska is where I want to be.  So, I picked up and moved last winter and was a handler for Fred Agree up in Trapper Creek.  The mushing bug hit me and hit me hard.  These men and women of the Iditarod were not only dog lovers but burly survivalists too!  Just hearing some stories and reading every Iditarod book I could get my hands on made me decide that I would throw myself into the lifestyle headfirst!  So after a great winter in Trapper Creek I contacted several Iditarod mushers to see if any of them wanted a handler/musher for the next couple years.  Several were interested, but the Seavey’s situation sounded like the best by a long shot!  I made a commitment to them to handle this year and train my own team for the Iditarod next year.

So here I am a month and a half later, and I can really say that this is going to be a perfect fit.  I’ve learned a ton of information on dog care and racing techniques already, which will come in very handy on the trail.  My mountaineering experience and my previous Alaskan winter should help a lot this coming winter.  I look forward to the challenges and hard work!

I have decided to run my qualifier races and the Iditarod with the intentions of bringing awareness to the ways Breast Cancer affects not only women but the men in their lives, too.  I lost my mother to this terrible disease in November of 2000, and really want to do anything in my power to bring attention to this cause! Not a day goes by without me thinking about her, and I look forward to helping others in the same situation.

So thank you for your interest in the Greatest Race on Earth, and hopefully y’all can follow me all the way to Nome in 2004!

Sincerely,
Pete Ripmaster  

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